Flooding on the Assiniboine River has made irrigation difficult for potato growers who use the river as their water source.
Around 15 percent of Manitoba's potato acres are irrigated with water from the Assiniboine, says Dan Sawatzky, manager of Keystone Potato Producers Association.
"We're having some difficulty with getting pumps and equipment into the Assiniboine. Levels are starting to subside now but there was quite a challenge with pumps being inundated by water," he says. "Guys were scrambling to set up temporary diesel pumps to keep water on their fields."
He says about 300 acres of potatoes were lost to flooding on the river flats.
According to crop insurance data, just over 52 thousand acres of potatoes were planted in Manitoba this spring. (Based on 97 percent of farmers' seeded acreage reports, it's projected 52,336 acres of potatoes were planted - 43,295 acres irrigated, 1,456 acres dryland and 7,585 acres of table potatoes.)
"That number is down from last year. We did lose about eight thousand acres on the processing side. I think the table fresh acres are up slightly," says Sawatzky.
He says the weather over the last three weeks has helped the crop along, with growers currently applying fungicides on regular intervals to keep diseases down.
Source: PortageOnline